LYON FAQ's

The following are the most frequently asked questions we are hearing from Lyon County residents. Read through to see the answers to your most likely questions.

1. Lyon County is struggling with revenues, doesn’t it need the Brothel tax money?

The tax the brothels contribute to less than 1% of the county budget.* When the brothels are removed from Lyon County, the county will NOT struggle to keep its current employees or be forced to reduce services. The Board of County Commissioners made a great decision and safeguard decades ago to never put brothel room taxes into the general fund. The room tax goes to a fund that purchases new county vehicles. Those commissioners understood the importance of not relying on brothel revenues for the stability of their economy.​There are other options to buy new vehicles, including the use of federal PILT payments until increased revenues from growth occurs and/or driving vehicles a few years longer.​*Lyon County Budget: https://www.lyon-county.org/DocumentCenter/View/7406​

2. Is there economic harm to having brothels in Lyon County?

​The commercially zoned Moundhouse properties where the four brothels are located have created serious blight where current property owners cannot fully develop and unleash the property’s full tax potential. New businesses or chain businesses will not invest their capital next to a brothel. As long as brothels continue to be an eye-sore for Moundhouse, real jobs cannot be expanded for Moundhouse, Dayton, Stagecoach, and Silver Springs residents.Lyon County needs to seize this opportunity to unleash its full economic potential aimed in commercial development and increased community based jobs by riding itself of the blight associated with legalized brothels.

3. But aren’t these women providing taxes for the county?

​The women in the brothels are independent contractors. Their earnings are not taxed by Nevada. Independent contractors are not mandated to have a state or county business licenses. As contractors, the brothel owner is not responsible to provide any health insurance, dental or mental health costs and services. The money is earned in Lyon County, but more often than not leaves the state due to turnover and women not residing in Lyon County.

4. Is this initiative being pushed by outside California Liberals?

​No, this is a grassroots Lyon County movement, composed of businesses, elected officials, community leaders, and individuals, many whom were born and raised right here in Lyon County. We want to abolish the institution of legalized brothels and giving a license to a single individual to exploit hundreds of vulnerable women each year for money. We realize women are not products to be sold.

5. If Lyon County citizens overturn this local ordinance, will prostitution become illegal in Nevada?

This is a Lyon County initiative and only effects Lyon County.

6. Do legal brothels make prostitution safe?

​It’s not the legal status of prostitution that causes the harm, it’s the prostitution itself. Legalization of prostitution does not decrease the physical and the emotional safety of women in prostitution. Prostitution always harms women. The legalized buying and selling women is in effect the promotion of and profiting from women’s poverty, childhood sexual abuse, sexual harassment and sexual exploitation. Wherever legal prostitution exists, nearby illegal prostitution increases.

Women can report rapes and assaults to the police under current laws. The problem is that contempt toward prostitutes stays the same whether prostitution is legal or illegal. Women are frequently raped in escort and brothel prostitution, according to a number of studies. Similar studies show that the vast majority of those in prostitution were raped as a child before getting into it.

7. Do legal brothels make it better?

​Prostitution can’t be made “a little better” any more than domestic violence can be made “a little better.” Women in prostitution tell us clearly: they want the same options in life that others have: a decent job, safe housing, medical care and psychological counseling. They deserve that, not just an HIV test to make sure that they are “clean” for johns to sexually harass, sexually exploit and even rape.

8. Isn’t this a well-regulated business?

​The Sheriff’s Office does not have enough resources or deputies to protect our residents, provide traffic enforcement on our residential streets, and be expected to enforce brothel laws. It has been decades since deputies have regularly gone into the brothels to ensure regulations are being followed.

9. If we close down the brothels, where will all the women go?

The majority of the women come in from out of town to work at the brothel for short periods of time (ex: 7-10 days), return to their home states for a period of time, and then back to the brothel again. There is a high turnover of women. Because they come into Lyon County, work at the brothel for a couple of weeks and then leave, most will likely return home. Those they wish to remain in Nevada, and even Lyon County, will be connected with resources as needed.

10. If we close down the brothels, will we see an increase of street prostitution and sex crimes?

Quite the opposite. Research and data shows that legalizing brothels increases crime and violence against women. Closing the brothel will aid in reducing the market for prostitution.

The latest FBI’s Uniformed Crime Report (UCR), which houses the Nevada State crime reports from 2012-2016, shows on average, a person in Lyon County is 57.1% more likely to be a rape victim than a person in Douglas County; and 1,660% more likely to be a rape victim than a person in Carson City, even though the populations are almost identical.

11. Why should we care about consenting adults and what they do?

​Almost all women in prostitution are there as a last resort, they don’t “choose” prostitution the way someone chooses a career as an x-ray technician. Many women in legal brothels have been sent there by their pimps. Most women in prostitution end up there only because other options are not available. They do not have stable housing, they urgently need money to support children or pay for school, and they often have limited education. Prostitution is not labor, nor is it about having a range of educational and job options to choose from, it is paid sexual exploitation.The only population privileged enough to 100% choose to be there are the men buying women for sex. These women are an extremely vulnerable segment of our society and we have an obligation to help safeguard them from predatory practices. It is a bad public policy to allow their exploitation and take profit from it.

12. Has anyone asked the women what they want?

Before filing the petition, members of the campaign met with several women who have prostituted, including sex trafficking survivors who were trafficked through brothels in Nevada but considered themselves "consenting adults" at the time. Some of these women were working in the Lyon County brothels as recently as January of this year. A few have expressed their desire to help in various ways, including from behind the scenes all the way to doing press interviews. We respect their privacy and will only ask of them what they are comfortable with.

Furthermore, an advocate has been brought in to ensure a relationship can be developed and maintained with those who wish to establish one. The women have an open invitation to meet with her and ask questions about the campaign and the services residents are able to connect them with after the brothels close.

13. wHAT IS THE ETAP, PAC?

The End Trafficking and Prostitution PAC is committed to supporting efforts to end sex trafficking and prostitution in Nevada through awareness, advocacy, policy, and legislation. After being connected with Lyon County residents wanting to improve their community, ETAP, PAC agreed to support their effort. The PAC's Director, Jason Guinasso, JD, is also serving as legal council for the Lyon County effort. The PAC and No Little Girl Campaign currently use his office in Reno as a mailing address.

For more information or to see the Board of Directors, visit www.ETAPPAC.org.

14. WHO IS MANAGING THE NO LITTLE GIRL CAMPAIGN WEBSITE?

www.NoLittleGirl.org is managed by Kimberly Mull Advocacy and Consulting (KMAC). KMAC is a strategic lobbying and consulting firm with an innovative approach to improving the response to and support of victims' rights across the sexual violence spectrum. The firm provides a full range of local, state, and federal consulting services for NGOs, local agencies, campaigns and political professionals to advance the response towards personal violence across the country. Expanding beyond traditional lobbying, the firm focuses on long-term political and corporate strategies for clients from inception to implementation. KMAC specializes in building collaborative relationships for legislative and fundamental systems, while also designing policy solutions tailored to individual clients.